August 14, 2008
Bangkok - Thai Airways International plans to lay off 400-500 employees through the early retirement program which will cost about 700 million baht, according to the company’s president Apinan Sumanaseni.
The national carrier faced more than nine billion baht of loss in the second quarter. Four billion baht of loss was due to soaring oil prices.
The figure is the biggest quarterly loss in a decade and much higher than when it lost 417 million baht last year.
"The main reason was the sharp rise in the price of jet fuel by 73 percent, causing the company's fuel costs to rise sharply," Ngamnit Sombutpibool, the airline's vice president of accounting, said in the statement.
The depreciation of the company’s new aircrafts and financial losses caused by weakened baht were said to affect Thai Airways financial status.
Its board meeting took place yesterday.
Thai Airways also plans to reduce the direct flights to Los Angeles and other routes to cope with losses.
The company’s total operating revenue in the second quarter was was 50.29 billion baht, up 13 percent year-on-year, while its operating costs were 54.74 billion baht, up 20.3 percent from the same period last year.
